this ought to be a show

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

let me guess, it will be all these wonderful things, and then you dig a little deeper and realize its way worse than what we have now.

im sure the insurance companies are excited though.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

I look forward to premiums continuing to go up no matter what anyone does because, wait for it, health insurance companies want to make money!

The insurance companies are not excited. ACA was a giant kick in the balls to most of them.

Many of the people receiving insurance for the first time (hell even currently insured) have no idea how insurance works. They went out and got that surgery or whatever else not realizing that insurance doesn't pay for everything. They didn't understand the concept of deductibles and co-pays, for example. My sources include my personal experiences and here's a Forbes article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2016/03/13/americans-dont-understand-basic-health-terms-let-alone-obamacare-costs/#2c59edd3359e. Obviously, this has caused massive issues with claims. Whatever plan Trump comes up with, it better be to greatly simplify how insurance works so that people can actually understand it and use it.

Many of the insurance companies waited to build any systems or implement any changes until the courts ruled that ACA was constitutional. Then, our government only gave them a few months to be ready for it. Guess what happened? Huge payouts were made to everyone from software firms to hardware companies, training, etc., all in the effort to be prepared. We all have heard the problems with the government website, but what you might not have heard about is that the site is still not actually working as expected after several years of enrollment cycles. They are still sending all kinds of bad data and insurance companies are still struggling to work with the data while the government hits them with massive fines. Any change by Trump will likely mean significant work on the costly investments that have been made the past few years.

Because of the changes in ACA to remove denial of coverage, insurers have been forced to change how they do business. Underwriting is essentially gone. Instead, its been replaced by care management. Of course, the government is still putting standards into place, so care management is a complete mess. One of the crucial parts of care management is the open, free and secure transfer of data. For example, to manage your health episode, I may need to get details from multiple providers. My proprietary system may need to talk to your proprietary system. Well guess what? Proprietary system 1 isn't going to just open up their software for proprietary system 2 because they are competitors. This is actually starting to change, but its still a few years away from where it should be. That said, this is the best part of ACA and the part that rarely gets stated. All kinds of companies and products are sprouting up to help you manage your care. Apple health kit is a great example. Look at all of the devices now available for monitoring your care. Its all driving to lower your risk so that insurers aren't paying out to some 600lb guy for his diabetes when he could have put the fucking fork down or had a salad instead of McDonalds for every meal. By reducing risk and managing care, we should become healthier and our insurance rates should go down. Unfortunately, people are really stubborn and they like to drink heavily and smoke and all the other wonderful vices that are out there. So, I think its a noble cause, but one that is set up for failure.

The funniest part of all of this is that Trump has people so worked up across this nation, its going to result in all kinds of increased stress and anxiety. This stress and anxiety will result in... health problems. Also, what do you think is going to happen when these companies start hiring back American workers? Well, they are going to continue to get their profit margins. They will do it by hiring you back, but "asking you" to work a lot of extra OT. Don't believe me? Its been happening in several industries to this day, such as technology. Guess what all those extra hours do? Bingo, extra stress and health problems. I'm sure the insurance companies don't even think or care about this, but they will when claims start pouring in for mental health and well-being, addiction, etc.

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Actually, many are NFP or policy-holder owned, like Wellmark, which I assume you partake in:

https://www.wellmark.com/about/company-information/who-we-are

"We’re Wellmark, Inc., an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. We’re also a mutual insurance company, which means we’re owned by our policy holders, not investors — and that’s important. Since we’re owned by our friends and neighbors throughout Iowa and South Dakota, we know what’s important. Wellmark members demand exceptional value. We work hard every day to deliver that by carefully managing costs, providing outstanding customer service and empowering our members to stay healthy."

Of course, that money does have to go somewhere:

http://helenair.com/news/local/blue-cross-parent-firm-sued-over-big-profits-big-bonuses/article_fa4b9036-e6a9-11e3-8a18-0019bb2963f4.html

The parent firm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has been sued by a benefits-administration group that says the Chicago-based insurance giant is hoarding excess profits and unduly enriching its executives. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Chicago, said Health Care Service Corp. is breaching its contract with customers by running up excess profits of nearly $5 billion. The Chicago Tribune first reported on the lawsuit, which said that money should have been distributed to HCSC customers as a paid dividend, reduced prescription drugs costs or lower premiums. Instead, HCSC used some of the money to pay nearly $100 million in bonuses to its top executives from 2011-2013, the suit said. The Lee Newspapers State Bureau reported last year that HCSC Chief Executive Patricia Hemingway Hall received $16 million in compensation in 2012, including a $14.9 million bonus. In all, the company’s top 10 executives took home $53 million in bonuses for 2012, when the company reported $1 billion in net revenue.

More recently:

http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/report-top-pay-soars-at-health-care-service-corp-amid-aca-losses/427027/

Executives saw their compensation rise last year, despite continued losses on their ACA business, at Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, according to a recent analysis by Modern Healthcare. The company's top 10 executives saw their combined earnings rise 57%, going from a total of $36.1 million in 2014 to $56.7 million in 2015, the findings showed. The largest compensation package went to CEO Patricia Hemingway Hall, who has since retired. She increased her earnings by 42%, from $11.7 million in 2014 to $16.6 million in 2015.

That was happening while they were shedding thousands from their workforce.

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its just amazing to me... the baby boomer generation will go down as the 'i got mine' generation. i cant wait until they all fucking die. besides my parents of course.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Its awful, worse than most people realize. And its cross-generational. Executive bonuses drive a lot of corporate America from what I've experienced. In Chicago, established companies have brought in younger executives and those execs won't do a damn thing without a bonus. Their underlings then refuse to question anything because they don't want to impact an upstream bonus. Most of the time in my career I have to ask, "if I question this, do I think there is a bonus attached to it?" Millions of dollars will be wasted on projects that have no benefit to the customer, but it gains someone a bonus so everyone just marches along.

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we need another fdr president. someone who ACTUALLY just takes huge gashes out of the corporate system... not just says he wants to 'drain the swamp'.

the solutions are so simple... but to implement them is almost impossible because so many citizens are dumb as rocks. you can literally steal from them (2008) and then tell them it was OK because the system is too big to fail... and they just keep voting the same people in (rich people).

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

The anti-vaxxers will be glad to assist with that.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George